“The Iraq War is the greatest strategic mistake in our history.” - Lt. Gen. William E. Odom, USA, (Rtd.)

On March 30, 2008, President George W. Bush tossed out the ceremonial first pitch at the home opener of the Washington Nationals. He was roundly booed by the capacity crowd. He is easily the worse chief executive in the history of the Republic. Bush, with V.P. Dick Cheney and their mob, lied the country into the Iraq War. If you’re keeping count, it was 935 damnable lies! (1) As a result, 4,013 U.S. troops are dead, over 30,000 more are seriously wounded and an estimated 1.2 million Iraqis are in their graves. The cost to taxpayers for this debacle is reportedly trillion dollars. There is, however, plenty of blame to go around. I’m referring to the “Gang of Three”: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD). They’ve aided the Bush-Cheney Mob. Without their congressional-based complicity, this immoral war could have ended in early 2007.

The Democrats had repeatedly promised the people, that if they won the 2006 election and regained control of the Congress, they would take the necessary steps to “end the war.” They failed to keep their promise! All they had to do was decline to continue funding the conflict and instead authorize sufficient measures to “safely” bring the troops home. But, they didn’t have the courage to fulfill their word for a variety of dubious reasons, including allowing Bush “to save face.” (2) Since the Democrats came to power in January, 2007, 1,009 brave U.S. troops have died in Iraq and another 7,549 have been seriously wounded. (3)




Background: House Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Mikulski, voted against the Joint Congressional Resolution (HJ 114) on Oct. 11, 2002, which supposedly delegated to the Liar-in-Chief the authority to use military force against Iraq, (which he did on March 20, 2003.) I say “supposedly” since the U.S. Constitution grants to the Congress “alone” the power to declare war, but that is a whole other discussion. In any event, Sen. Clinton not only voted for the war, she was one of its most passionate cheerleaders in the U.S. Senate, along with Sen. “Turncoat Joe” Lieberman (IND-CT). Just the other day, when the flaky Lieberman, who has also condoned “waterboarding,” attempted to compare Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to our late martyred President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, I could hear the loud jeering at his stupid comment coming from the web site of “The Huffington Post.” (4)

Getting back to the Gang of Three. Pelosi, Clinton and Mikulski, have consistently voted to fund the Iraq War, which pleases the dickens out of the money-grubbing hogs that make up the Military-Industrial Complex. (5) The war-funding votes of this trio in the Congress have made possible the Machinery of Death, Mayhem and Slaughter, which has wasted Iraq, a nation of 26 million. Pelosi is also the one, in the House of Representatives, who arrogantly took “impeachment off the table.”

How does the “Gang of Three” justify their votes for war funding, which has subsidized the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the brutal occupation [read Civil War], and now props up the Bush-Cheney Gang’s latest insane scheme--”The Surge”? Pelosi, Clinton and Mikulski, all say they are voting for war funding “to protect the troops!”

Garrison Keillor addressed that exact issue in the “Baltimore Sun,” on April 2, 2008, in his piece, “We Have the Right to Reason Why.” He wrote about the special, unique duty that members of the military have in society and referred to Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem about the legendary Light Brigade and that famous line: “Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do & die.”

Keillor underscored: “Men have been riding off to death on behalf of many ARROGANT IDIOTS ever since, including the ONES WHO ARE IN THE WHITE HOUSE at the moment. This is a heroism that is not expected of you and me...Many men have been carried to the cemetery with honor guards and rifle salutes who, if the truth be known, knew their missions were not worth the price but went anyway. Many, many of our honored dead were dissenters. (6) What makes no sense at all is when THE ARROGANT IDIOT expects us civilians to support his unprincipled policy AS A WAY OF ‘SUPPORTING THE TROOPS.’”

Keillor concluded: “The troops are not mercenaries, they are American soldiers in a long, proud tradition going back to General Washington’s Continental Army at Valley Forge, and what gives their mission dignity and meaning is that it comes from a constitutional government in which war is not a point of personal privilege but a matter to be openly debated, opposed, protested and reported. For the troops to fall into line is a noble thing, FOR CIVILIANS TO FALL INTO LINE IS SHAMEFUL.”

Summing up, isn’t it time that the Gang of Three, Pelosi, Clinton and Mikulski, heard some boos from the American people?

Notes:

1. http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/51383

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsXx8HliKqU

3. http://icasualties.org/oif/

4. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/30/joe-lieberman-likens-john_n_94130.html

5. http://www.militaryindustrialcomplex.com/

6. http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/16292/index.php

©2008, William Hughes, All Rights Reserved.

William Hughes is a video and print journalist. His videos can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=liamh2.

Email Contact: liamhughes@comcast.net.